In my younger days I seriously thought that I could live without God. my thoughts were, "Other people do it everyday and are happy! They can do whatever they want". That's how I lived my life for longer than I am willing to admit to. That whole time I kept thinking something was missing. There was a certain void. I tried to fill that void with anything I could. Anything but God. Because I knew what he would want me to do. I would have to change, and I didn't want to change. That's been a few years back. God saw this resistance and responded. He took everything from me. I had nothing, and I had no choice but to fall back on Him. (That's what Mom says anyway, I think she's right.) That was the best thing that could have happened to me.
I got to a point where I hated who I had become and grew an anxious, serious hunger for God. That's when I joined the Media Ministry and the Link group (a fellowship of 20-somethings) at Pantego Bible Church. By surrounding myself with godly people I thought I myself would become a godly woman.(Acts 2:44-47) I ditched all my friends who were bad influences (Which were basically all of them.) and noticed even though I was lonely, I was happier being right in the eyes of God than being around a bunch of people that were just bringing me down.
After a while, people started to notice this change in me. First, of course my family. They were actually proud of me! Something I had not experienced since I was a little girl. People that didn't know me personally but saw me everyday at work or every Sunday at church started noticing a brighter beauty around me and mentioned it to my parents. (1 Peter 3:4)
I noticed in myself this change. The realization came to me that this is one of those "Defining Moments" that changes who you are. Except my moment was turning into a Constant Change. I was continually looking for God, listening to God, talking to God about
everything!
He started talking louder and clearer and it was easy to know what God wanted from me. It would have been just plain disobedient not to do what he was clearer telling me. He was telling me to Never Stop Praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
So, I did just that. I never stopped praying. That's when I changed my way of praying. Depending on the subject depends on how I pray. Usually, I just talk to him like he's sitting right next to me. He talked back.
Anytime I pray for selfish things, he will interrupt me and tell me to pray for someone who has a real need! The first time I experienced this it was like a slap in the face! He yelled at me and told me to stop what I was doing and pray for this person that he set on my heart because she needed prayer.
Talk about RANDOM!! Lol! Seriously!
After that, I decided to have lunch with an old mentor of mine that I haven't talked to in years. (Proverbs 11:14)
She just happened to call me out of the blue about a week earlier.
Coincidence...? I think not!
I told her what I had been experiencing and she knew the answer before I even finished my sentence! Without skipping a beat she said, "Heather, God's using you in an amazing way! You're an intercessor!"
She was excited to be telling me this. I was just confused.
My first reaction was "Huh...?? What is that??"
She told me, " intercessory prayer is the act of one person praying for or on behalf of another"
That would definitely make sense because of my personal beliefs in the power of prayer.
After many years of searching, I have finally found my spiritual gift! VERY exciting!
This whole area of my life I have labeled as my "Spiritual Growth Spurt"
My Spiritual Growth Spurt is what I will continue to blog about, mostly because this is very exciting to me!
God has been working in me in ways I never thought possible!
I can not wait to share with all of you who read this about the continual growth spurt I'm going through. I just hope and pray that what I'm telling you, helps you in your own spiritual growth spurt!
